There was plenty of blame to go around after the Eagles’ postseason run ended early, following a loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC wild-card round. But a few people are getting more heat than the rest.
One of the main culprits was offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who was fired after one season in the role and is reportedly on his way to Miami. Another person who has taken a lot of the blame is three-time Pro Bowler A.J. Brown.
Brown expressed frustrations with the offense over the last season with cryptic social media posts, Twitch livestreams, and to the media. Following the Eagles’ early exit, Brown declined speaking to reporters postgame and the following day as the players cleaned out their lockers.
Throughout the season former Eagles center Jason Kelce defended the receiver. Now, with Brown’s future in Philly still in question, Kelce was asked about the receiver’s perceived lack of effort on 94 WIP.
“How hard is it to play with a player that’s not giving full effort?” Kelce said. “It’s incredibly frustrating, right. I think any player that’s out there when you’re seeing a teammate not go all out, like that’s all you want from your teammates. And that’s all we want as fans. And it’s a really hard thing to optically watch. It’s frustrating to watch.”
Brown finished last season with 78 catches for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns. In the wild-card loss, Brown recorded three receptions for 25 yards and had a costly third-down drop late in the game.
“I think whatever was affecting A.J. affected the team,” Kelce said. “And I think that A.J. was clearly affected. I don’t know to what degree A.J. affected the other guys, probably a little bit. Whenever you have somebody who doesn’t have the right energy come through the building and you can just feel it. It’s not good, right? But, I think the reality is most of the words that come out of the building — from players, from coaches, from everybody — love A.J. Brown. … There’s a genuine appreciation for A.J. Do you know how hard that is when it’s so apparent that he’s frustrated on the field?
“ … He’s well respected. I think part of it is that he’s a great player and teammates want him there and know that he can be a dominating force for them. He’s just unfortunately a player who allows his internal frustrations to manifest into his play. And it makes him play worse, and makes the offense worse, and it makes his energy worse. And some guys can block that out and go out there and just play football. He is clearly not one of those guys.”
Kelce has since clarified his comments with a post on X.
“It seems people are taking this as a dig on A.J. Brown, which wasn’t really the intent of the response,” Kelce wrote. “It was apparent that A.J. was frustrated, and it’s apparent that A.J. lets that affect his play at times. That’s frustrating to watch as fans and people on the outside. But it’s more important that his teammates and coaches for all of this external frustration still love and only say positive things about A.J.
“That probably means that his teammates understand where he’s coming from, and that’s what really matters. If there was an issue with it, teammates would be saying different things publicly. That was the point I was attempting to say. That was the purpose of this response and I worded it poorly. I love A.J. Brown, I loved him as a teammate, and I think if he ends up getting traded, the Eagles, and fans will end up regretting it majorly.”
Brown is under contract with the Eagles through the 2029 season.
